This invention relates to systems and methods for determining the peroxide or active oxygen content in non-aqueous liquid media.
Peroxides are used as initiators in a variety of chemical processes. The capability of making a rapid analysis of a feedstock or product stream for peroxide content is highly desirable. Adjustments can be made as required at frequent intervals to provide a desired concentration of peroxide for the process. Such close control of the peroxide content can result in reduced process costs because of higher yields and lower scrap and in improved quality control. Also, continuous monitoring of peroxide content is important for processes where peroxides decompose during processing and release oxygen which can reach explosive levels.
The technique most commonly used to determine peroxide content in a non-aqueous medium is a manual procedure (ASTM E299-68) involving a chemical reaction which is performed in the dark under a nitrogen blanket and takes approximately one hour to complete. In addition to being time consuming, this manual procedure requires relatively large amounts of reagents.